• September 20, 2000

According to a new e-Visory Report released by The NPD Group, Inc. and Media Metrix, the number of unique visitors to real estate sites increased by 75% this summer compared to the same period last year. By comparison, total Web traffic was up 22% for the period.

The increase in traffic comes even as the proportion of consumers who are online and in the market for a new home has risen only slightly, the study reported. Almost three in ten consumers who access the Internet are currently in the market to buy a new property, or have been sometime during the past six months. This is a slight increase from the results of a similar study conducted by The NPD Group in June 1999 (30% vs. 28% respectively).

The NPD survey confirms that about half of those who are online and in the market for a new property used the Internet to search for new properties online (49%). The majority of consumers searching for properties online are interested in purchasing a house (74%), with the remainder looking to buy land (10%), a condominium (10%), or co-op (1%), commercial building (1%) or some other property (5%).

The average price of those properties searched for online has increased about 9%, from $128,200 last year to $139,400 this year. Almost one-fifth of those searching online are looking at properties valued over $200,000 (18%).

The report shows Realtor.com, the official site of the National Association of Realtors, had the highest number of unique visitors among real estate sites, with almost 2.5 million unique visitors in July of 2000 or a reach of 3.2%. MSN's HomeAdvisor.com and Homestore.com are tied for second with 1.5 million unique visitors each.